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Publications (66)
– UNU-WIDER provides open access to a wealth of information
The question ‘why is there so little industrialization in Africa?’ has been a key focus of UNU-WIDER researchers and research partners for the last decade. Many Asian economies started their industrialization processes from conditions similar to those that African countries are experiencing today...
Working Paper
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– The role of firm-level relationships in knowledge transfers in Africa and Asia
This study combines evidence from interviews in seven countries with (i) government institutions responsible for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), (ii) 102 multinational enterprises (MNEs), and (iii) 226 domestic firms linked to these foreign affiliates as suppliers, customers, or...
The international community has a new set of development goals. They reflect Africa’s aspirations much more closely than the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) they replaced. In addition to a maintained focus on the eradication of poverty, their single most important contribution is to recognize...
Working Paper
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– The case for Special Economic Zones in Africa
Firms tend to cluster in close geographic proximity to each other to benefit from reduced transport costs, shared inputs, and productivity spillovers due to learning and technology transfers. Evidence from low-income countries suggests that such agglomeration economies may be substantial in...
Blog
– Policy proposals
One of the strengths of the new UNU-WIDER and Brookings book Made in Africa is that, in the best sense of the word, its proposals are debatable. It provides evidence and arguments for particular policies. These arguments can be debated and form part of the conversation that allows policymakers can...
Blog
At his swearing in, the new African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina set out an agenda for the economic transformation of the continent. Among the five pillars of that agenda—popularly known as the “high fives”—is one that may have surprised many, especially in the donor community...
Blog
The 2016 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank occur during uncertain times for the “African Growth Miracle.” After more than two decades of sustained economic expansion, growth in sub-Saharan Africa slowed to 3.4 percent in 2015, the weakest performance since 2009...
Blog
Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been praised as an important development tool, especially for countries at low levels of industrial development. Attracting multinational enterprises (MNEs) is seen as a means of introducing high-capability firms into low-capability industrial settings, and, given...
Blog
– Who benefits?
Manufacturing production in both developed and developing economies tends to be highly geographically concentrated in cities and industrial clusters. Firms are drawn together for a variety of reasons, mostly motivated by the desire to reduce the costs of transporting goods, people, and ideas. In...
Blog
– Some new thinking for Africa Industrialization Day
This Friday, November 20 marks yet another “Africa Industrialization Day” by the United Nations. There have now been 25 such events, and they seem to have come and gone with relatively little notice. This year may be different: Africa’s failure to industrialize has come to the attention of a growing...
Working Paper
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– Political economy issues and policy vistas
This study reviews the political economy issues surrounding the 2008 food crisis in Nigeria; the lessons learned from management of the crisis; analyses the performance of policies aimed at stabilizing prices; and proffers policy measures for preventing future occurrence. The study finds that the...
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– Learning some lessons
India’s policy responses to the food price crisis were strong. Exports of basic staples were banned. Domestic support prices of wheat and rice were raised substantially. The urea price increases in global markets were absorbed through enhanced fertilizer subsidies. The government launched the...
Working Paper
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– A synthesis
This paper identifies eight political economy factors that influenced governments’ policy choices during the most recent global food price crisis. To explain the variety of responses and the policy failures, a framework is proposed that locates policies along the twin dimensions of unitary vs...
Working Paper
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– Evidence from Senegalese Manufacturing Plant
The increasing quantity of literature investigating the impact of trade openness on firm efficiency has not yet provided a definite prediction of the direction of causality. This paper investigates how the relationship between exporting and productivity impacts on manufacturing sectors in Senegal...
Blog
In this interview, Per Pinstrup-Andersen talks about the international project which has culminated in the book Food Price Policy in an Era of Market Instability. (Oxford University Press, 2015) More about the project. PART 1 - The political economy of food price policy - an interview with Per...
– Bad Luck or Bad Policy?
16 December 2014 John Page On 20 November 2014 the United Nations celebrated the 25th Africa Industrialization Day. But perhaps ‘celebrate’ is not exactly the right word. Africa’s experience with industrialization over the past quarter century has actually been disappointing. In 2010, sub-Saharan...
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